GOOGL E PRIVACY POL ICY

When you use our services, you’re trusting us

with your information. We understand this is a
big responsibility and work hard to protect your
information and put you in control.
This Privacy Policy is meant to help you understand what information we collect, why we
collect it, and how you can update, manage, export, and delete your information.

Privacy Checkup
Looking to change your privacy settings?

Take the Privacy Checkup

Effective February 8, 2024 | Archived versions

We build a range of services that help millions of people daily to explore and interact with
the world in new ways. Our services include:

Google apps, sites, and devices, like Search, YouTube, and Google Home

Platforms like the Chrome browser and Android operating system

Products that are integrated into third-party apps and sites, like ads, analytics, and
embedded Google Maps
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You can use our services in a variety of ways to manage your privacy. For example, you
can sign up for a Google Account if you want to create and manage content like emails
and photos, or see more relevant search results. And you can use many Google services
when you’re signed out or without creating an account at all, like searching on Google or
watching YouTube videos. You can also choose to browse the web in a private mode, like
Chrome Incognito mode. And across our services, you can adjust your privacy settings to
control what we collect and how your information is used.

To help explain things as clearly as possible, we’ve added examples, explanatory videos,
and definitions for key terms. And if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you
can contact us.

IN F ORM ATION GOOGL E COL L ECTS

We want you to understand the types of

information we collect as you use our services
We collect information to provide better services to all our users — from figuring out basic
stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you’ll find
most useful, the people who matter most to you online, or which YouTube videos you
might like. The information Google collects, and how that information is used, depends on
how you use our services and how you manage your privacy controls.

When you’re not signed in to a Google Account, we store the information we collect with
unique identifiers tied to the browser, application, or device you’re using. This allows us to
do things like maintain your preferences across browsing sessions, such as your
preferred language or whether to show you more relevant search results or ads based on
your activity.

When you’re signed in, we also collect information that we store with your Google
Account, which we treat as personal information.

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Things you create or provide to us

When you create a Google Account, you provide us with personal information that
includes your name and a password. You can also choose to add a phone number or
payment information to your account. Even if you aren’t signed in to a Google Account,
you might choose to provide us with information — like an email address to communicate
with Google or receive updates about our services.

We also collect the content you create, upload, or receive from others when using our
services. This includes things like email you write and receive, photos and videos you save,
docs and spreadsheets you create, and comments you make on YouTube videos.

Information we collect as you use our services

Your apps, browsers & devices

We collect information about the apps, browsers, and devices you use to access Google
services, which helps us provide features like automatic product updates and dimming
your screen if your battery runs low.

The information we collect includes unique identifiers, browser type and settings, device
type and settings, operating system, mobile network information including carrier name
and phone number, and application version number. We also collect information about
the interaction of your apps, browsers, and devices with our services, including IP
address, crash reports, system activity, and the date, time, and referrer URL of your
request.

We collect this information when a Google service on your device contacts our servers —
for example, when you install an app from the Play Store or when a service checks for
automatic updates. If you’re using an Android device with Google apps, your device
periodically contacts Google servers to provide information about your device and
connection to our services. This information includes things like your device type and
carrier name, crash reports, which apps you've installed, and, depending on your device
settings, other information about how you’re using your Android device.

Your activity
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We collect information about your activity in our services, which we use to do things like
recommend a YouTube video you might like. The activity information we collect may
include:

Terms you search for

Videos you watch

Views and interactions with content and ads

Voice and audio information

Purchase activity

People with whom you communicate or share content

Activity on third-party sites and apps that use our services

Chrome browsing history you’ve synced with your Google Account

If you use our services to make and receive calls or send and receive messages, we may
collect call and message log information like your phone number, calling-party number,
receiving-party number, forwarding numbers, sender and recipient email address, time
and date of calls and messages, duration of calls, routing information, and types and
volumes of calls and messages.

You can visit your Google Account to find and manage activity information that’s saved in
your account.

Go to Google Account

Your location information

We collect location information when you use our services, which helps us offer features
like driving directions, search results for things near you, and ads based on your location.

Depending on the products you’re using and settings you choose, Google may use
different types of location information to help make some services and products you use
more helpful. These include: SUCCESS!

GPS and other sensor data from your device

 IP address

Activity on Google services, such as from your searches or places you label like home
or work

Information about things near your device, such as Wi-Fi access points, cell towers,
and Bluetooth-enabled devices

The types of location data we collect and how long we store it depend in part on your
device and account settings. For example, you can turn your Android device’s location on
or off using the device’s settings app. You can also turn on Location History if you want to
create a private map of where you go with your signed-in devices. And if your Web & App
Activity setting is enabled, your searches and other activity from Google services, which
may also include location information, is saved to your Google Account. Learn more
about how we use location information.

In some circumstances, Google also collects information about you from publicly
accessible sources. For example, if your name appears in your local newspaper, Google’s
Search engine may index that article and display it to other people if they search for your
name. We may also collect information about you from trusted partners, such as
directory services who provide us with business information to be displayed on Google’s
services, marketing partners who provide us with information about potential customers
of our business services, and security partners who provide us with information to
protect against abuse. We also receive information from partners to provide advertising
and research services on their behalf.

We use various technologies to collect and store information, including cookies, pixel tags,
local storage, such as browser web storage or application data caches, databases, and
server logs.

W H Y GOOGL E COL L ECTS DATA

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We use data to build better services

We use the information we collect from all our services for the following purposes:

Provide our services

We use your information to deliver our services, like processing the terms you search for in
order to return results or helping you share content by suggesting recipients from your
contacts.

Maintain & improve our services

We also use your information to ensure our services are working as intended, such as
tracking outages or troubleshooting issues that you report to us. And we use your
information to make improvements to our services — for example, understanding which
search terms are most frequently misspelled helps us improve spell-check features used
across our services.

Develop new services

We use the information we collect in existing services to help us develop new ones. For
example, understanding how people organized their photos in Picasa, Google’s first
photos app, helped us design and launch Google Photos.

Provide personalized services, including content and ads

We use the information we collect to customize our services for you, including providing
recommendations, personalized content, and customized search results. For example,
Security Checkup provides security tips adapted to how you use Google products. And
Google Play uses information like apps you’ve already installed and videos you’ve
watched on YouTube to suggest new apps you might like.

Depending on your settings, we may also show you personalized ads based on your
interests. For example, if you search for “mountain bikes,” you may see ads for sports SUCCESS!
equipment on YouTube. You can control what information we use to show you ads by
visiting your ad settings in My Ad Center.
 We don’t show you personalized ads based on sensitive categories, such as race,
religion, sexual orientation, or health.

We don’t show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or
Photos.

We don’t share information that personally identifies you with advertisers, such as
your name or email, unless you ask us to. For example, if you see an ad for a nearby
flower shop and select the “tap to call” button, we’ll connect your call and may share
your phone number with the flower shop.

Go to My Ad Center

Measure performance

We use data for analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used.
For example, we analyze data about your visits to our sites to do things like optimize
product design. And we also use data about the ads you interact with, including your
related Google Search activity, to help advertisers understand the performance of their ad
campaigns. We use a variety of tools to do this, including Google Analytics. When you visit
sites or use apps that use Google Analytics, a Google Analytics customer may choose to
enable Google to link information about your activity from that site or app with activity
from other sites or apps that use our ad services.

Communicate with you

We use information we collect, like your email address, to interact with you directly. For
example, we may send you a notification if we detect suspicious activity, like an attempt
to sign in to your Google Account from an unusual location. Or we may let you know
about upcoming changes or improvements to our services. And if you contact Google,
we’ll keep a record of your request in order to help solve any issues you might be facing.

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Protect Google, our users, and the public
We use information to help improve the safety and reliability of our services. This includes
detecting, preventing, and responding to fraud, abuse, security risks, and technical issues
that could harm Google, our users, or the public.

We use different technologies to process your information for these purposes. We use
automated systems that analyze your content to provide you with things like customized
search results, personalized ads, or other features tailored to how you use our services.
And we analyze your content to help us detect abuse such as spam, malware, and illegal
content. We also use algorithms to recognize patterns in data. For example, Google
Translate helps people communicate across languages by detecting common language
patterns in phrases you ask it to translate.

We may combine the information we collect among our services and across your devices
for the purposes described above. For example, if you watch videos of guitar players on
YouTube, you might see an ad for guitar lessons on a site that uses our ad products.
Depending on your account settings, your activity on other sites and apps may be
associated with your personal information in order to improve Google’s services and the
ads delivered by Google.

If other users already have your email address or other information that identifies you, we
may show them your publicly visible Google Account information, such as your name and
photo. This helps people identify an email coming from you, for example.

We’ll ask for your consent before using your information for a purpose that isn’t covered
in this Privacy Policy.

YOUR PRIVACY CON TROL S

You have choices regarding the information weSUCCESS!

collect and how it's used
This section describes key controls for managing your privacy across our services. You
can also visit the Privacy Checkup, which provides an opportunity to review and adjust
important privacy settings. In addition to these tools, we also offer specific privacy
settings in our products — you can learn more in our Product Privacy Guide.

Go to Privacy Checkup

Managing, reviewing, and updating your

information
When you’re signed in, you can always review and update information by visiting the
services you use. For example, Photos and Drive are both designed to help you manage
specific types of content you’ve saved with Google.

We also built a place for you to review and control information saved in your Google
Account. Your Google Account includes:

Privacy controls

Activity Controls
Decide what types of activity you’d like saved in your account. For example,
if you have YouTube History turned on, the videos you watch and the things
you search for are saved in your account so you can get better
recommendations and remember where you left off. And if you have Web &
App Activity turned on, your searches and activity from other Google
services are saved in your account so you can get more personalized
experiences like faster searches and more helpful app and content
recommendations. Web & App Activity also has a subsetting that lets you
control whether information about your activity on other sites, apps, and
devices that use Google services, such as apps you install and use on
Android, is saved in your Google Account and used to improve Google
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Go to Activity Controls
 Ad settings
Manage your preferences about the ads shown to you on Google and on
sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads. You can modify your
interests, choose whether your personal information is used to make ads
more relevant to you, and turn on or off certain advertising services.

Go to My Ad Center

About you
Manage personal info in your Google Account and control who can see it
across Google services.

Go to About You

Shared endorsements
Choose whether your name and photo appear next to your activity, like
reviews and recommendations, that appear in ads.

Go to Shared Endorsements

Sites and apps that use Google services

Manage information that websites and apps using Google services, like
Google Analytics, may share with Google when you visit or interact with their
services.

Go to How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our
services

Ways to review & update your information

My Activity
My Activity allows you to review and control data that’s saved to your
Google Account when you’re signed in and using Google services, like
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searches you’ve done or your visits to Google Play. You can browse by date
and by topic, and delete part or all of your activity.

Go to My Activity
 Google Dashboard
Google Dashboard allows you to manage information associated with
specific products.

Go to Dashboard

Your personal information

Manage your contact information, such as your name, email, and phone
number.

Go to Personal Info

When you’re signed out, you can manage information associated with your browser or
device, including:

Signed-out search personalization: Choose whether your search activity is used to

offer you more relevant results and recommendations.

YouTube settings: Pause and delete your YouTube Search History and your YouTube
Watch History.

Ad Settings: Manage your preferences about the ads shown to you on Google and
on sites and apps that partner with Google to show ads.

Exporting, removing & deleting your information

You can export a copy of content in your Google Account if you want to back it up or use
it with a service outside of Google.

Export your data

To delete your information, you can: SUCCESS!

Delete your content from specific Google services

 Search for and then delete specific items from your account using My Activity

Delete specific Google products, including your information associated with those
products

Delete your entire Google Account

Delete your information

Inactive Account Manager allows you to give someone else access to parts of your
Google Account in case you’re unexpectedly unable to use your account.

And finally, you can also request to remove content from specific Google services based
on applicable law and our policies.

There are other ways to control the information Google collects whether or not you’re
signed in to a Google Account, including:

Browser settings: For example, you can configure your browser to indicate when
Google has set a cookie in your browser. You can also configure your browser to
block all cookies from a specific domain or all domains. But remember that our
services rely on cookies to function properly, for things like remembering your
language preferences.

Device-level settings: Your device may have controls that determine what
information we collect. For example, you can modify location settings on your
Android device.

SH ARIN G YOUR IN F ORM ATION

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When you share your information

Many of our services let you share information with other people, and you have control
over how you share. For example, you can share videos on YouTube publicly or you can
decide to keep your videos private. Remember, when you share information publicly, your
content may become accessible through search engines, including Google Search.

When you’re signed in and interact with some Google services, like leaving comments on a
YouTube video or reviewing an app in Play, your name and photo appear next to your
activity. We may also display this information in ads depending on your Shared
endorsements setting.

When Google shares your information

We do not share your personal information with companies, organizations, or individuals
outside of Google except in the following cases:

With your consent

We’ll share personal information outside of Google when we have your consent. For
example, if you use Google Home to make a reservation through a booking service, we’ll
get your permission before sharing your name or phone number with the restaurant. We
also provide you with controls to review and manage third party apps and sites you have
given access to data in your Google Account. We’ll ask for your explicit consent to share
any sensitive personal information.

With domain administrators

If you’re a student or work for an organization that uses Google services, your domain
administrator and resellers who manage your account will have access to your Google
Account. They may be able to:

Access and retain information stored in your account, like your email

View statistics regarding your account, like how many apps you install

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Change your account password

Suspend or terminate your account access

 Receive your account information in order to satisfy applicable law, regulation, legal
process, or enforceable governmental request

Restrict your ability to delete or edit your information or your privacy settings

For external processing

We provide personal information to our affiliates and other trusted businesses or persons
to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy
and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. For example, we use
service providers to help operate our data centers, deliver our products and services,
improve our internal business processes, and offer additional support to customers and
users. We also use service providers to help review YouTube video content for public
safety and analyze and listen to samples of saved user audio to help improve Google’s
audio recognition technologies.

For legal reasons

We will share personal information outside of Google if we have a good-faith belief that
access, use, preservation, or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:

Meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental

request. We share information about the number and type of requests we receive
from governments in our Transparency Report.

Enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations.

Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues.

Protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Google, our users, or the
public as required or permitted by law.

We may share non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners —
like publishers, advertisers, developers, or rights holders. For example, we share
information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services. We also allow
specific partners to collect information from your browser or device for advertising and
measurement purposes using their own cookies or similar technologies.
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If Google is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, we’ll continue to ensure the
confidentiality of your personal information and give affected users notice before
personal information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

K EEPIN G YOUR IN F ORM ATION SECURE

We build security into our services to protect

your information
All Google products are built with strong security features that continuously protect your
information. The insights we gain from maintaining our services help us detect and
automatically block security threats from ever reaching you. And if we do detect
something risky that we think you should know about, we’ll notify you and help guide you
through steps to stay better protected.

We work hard to protect you and Google from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure,
or destruction of information we hold, including:

We use encryption to keep your data private while in transit

We offer a range of security features, like Safe Browsing, Security Checkup, and 2
Step Verification to help you protect your account

We review our information collection, storage, and processing practices, including

physical security measures, to prevent unauthorized access to our systems

We restrict access to personal information to Google employees, contractors, and

agents who need that information in order to process it. Anyone with this access is
subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or
terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.

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EX PORTIN G & DEL ETIN G YOUR IN F ORM ATION

You can export a copy of your information or
delete it from your Google Account at any time
You can export a copy of content in your Google Account if you want to back it up or use
it with a service outside of Google.

Export your data

To delete your information, you can:

Delete your content from specific Google services

Search for and then delete specific items from your account using My Activity

Delete specific Google products, including your information associated with those
products

Delete your entire Google Account

Delete your information

RETAIN IN G YOUR IN F ORM ATION

We retain the data we collect for different periods of time depending on what it is, how we
use it, and how you configure your settings:

Some data you can delete whenever you like, such as your personal info or the
content you create or upload, like photos and documents. You can also delete
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activity information saved in your account, or choose to have it deleted
 automatically after a set period of time. We’ll keep this data in your Google Account
until you remove it or choose to have it removed.

Other data is deleted or anonymized automatically after a set period of time, such as
advertising data in server logs.

We keep some data until you delete your Google Account, such as information about
how often you use our services.

And some data we retain for longer periods of time when necessary for legitimate
business or legal purposes, such as security, fraud and abuse prevention, or
financial record-keeping.

When you delete data, we follow a deletion process to make sure that your data is safely
and completely removed from our servers or retained only in anonymized form. We try to
ensure that our services protect information from accidental or malicious deletion.
Because of this, there may be delays between when you delete something and when
copies are deleted from our active and backup systems.

You can read more about Google’s data retention periods, including how long it takes us
to delete your information.

COM PL IAN CE & COOPERATION W ITH REGUL ATORS

We regularly review this Privacy Policy and make sure that we process your information in
ways that comply with it.

Data transfers
We maintain servers around the world and your information may be processed on servers
located outside of the country where you live. Data protection laws vary among countries,
with some providing more protection than others. Regardless of where your information
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is processed, we apply the same protections described in this policy. We also comply with
certain legal frameworks relating to the transfer of data.
When we receive formal written complaints, we respond by contacting the person who
made the complaint. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local
data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of your data
that we cannot resolve with you directly.

AB OUT TH IS POL ICY

When this policy applies

This Privacy Policy applies to all of the services offered by Google LLC and its affiliates,
including YouTube, Android, and services offered on third-party sites, such as advertising
services. This Privacy Policy doesn’t apply to services that have separate privacy policies
that do not incorporate this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy doesn’t apply to:

The information practices of other companies and organizations that advertise our
services

Services offered by other companies or individuals, including products or sites they

offer that may include Google services to which the policy applies, or products or
sites displayed to you in search results, or linked from our services

Changes to this policy

We change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this
Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. We always indicate the date the last changes
were published and we offer access to archived versions for your review. If changes are
significant, we’ll provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email
notification of Privacy Policy changes).

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REL ATED PRIVACY PRACTICES

Specific Google services

The following privacy notices provide additional information about some Google services:

Payments

Fiber

Google Fi

Google Workspace for Education

Read Along

YouTube Kids

Google Accounts Managed with Family Link, for Children under 13 (or applicable age
in your country)

Family Link privacy guide for children & teens

Voice and Audio Collection from Children’s Features on the Google Assistant

If you’re a member of an organization that uses Google Workspace or Google Cloud

Platform, learn how these services collect and use your personal information in the
Google Cloud Privacy Notice.

Other useful resources

The following links highlight useful resources for you to learn more about our practices
and privacy settings.

Your Google Account is home to many of the settings you can use to manage yourSUCCESS!
account

Privacy Checkup guides you through key privacy settings for your Google Account
 Google’s safety center helps you learn more about our built-in security, privacy
controls, and tools to help set digital ground rules for your family online

Google’s Teen Privacy Guide provides answers to some of the top questions we get
asked about privacy

Privacy & Terms provides more context regarding this Privacy Policy and our Terms
of Service

Technologies includes more information about:

How Google uses cookies

Technologies used for Advertising

How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services

Key terms
Affiliates

An affiliate is an entity that belongs to the Google group of companies, including the
following companies that provide consumer services in the EU: Google Ireland Limited,
Google Commerce Ltd, Google Payment Corp, and Google Dialer Inc. Learn more about
the companies providing business services in the EU.

Algorithm

A process or set of rules followed by a computer in performing problem-solving

operations.

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Application data cache

An application data cache is a data repository on a device. It can, for example, enable a
web application to run without an internet connection and improve the performance of
the application by enabling faster loading of content.

Browser web storage

Browser web storage enables websites to store data in a browser on a device. When used
in "local storage" mode, it enables data to be stored across sessions. This makes data
retrievable even after a browser has been closed and reopened. One technology that
facilitates web storage is HTML 5.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer
when you visit a website. When you visit the site again, the cookie allows that site to
recognize your browser. Cookies may store user preferences and other information. You
can configure your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being
sent. However, some website features or services may not function properly without
cookies. Learn more about how Google uses cookies and how Google uses data,
including cookies, when you use our partners' sites or apps.

Device

A device is a computer that can be used to access Google services. For example, desktop
computers, tablets, smart speakers, and smartphones are all considered devices.

Google Account

You may access some of our services by signing up for a Google Account and providing
us with some personal information (typically your name, email address, and a password).
This account information is used to authenticate you when you access Google services
and protect your account from unauthorized access by others. You can edit or delete
your account at any time through your Google Account settings.
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IP address
Every device connected to the Internet is assigned a number known as an Internet
protocol (IP) address. These numbers are usually assigned in geographic blocks. An IP
address can often be used to identify the location from which a device is connecting to
the Internet. Learn more about how we use location information.

Non-personally identifiable information

This is information that is recorded about users so that it no longer reflects or references
an individually-identifiable user.

Personal information

This is information that you provide to us which personally identifies you, such as your
name, email address, or billing information, or other data that can be reasonably linked to
such information by Google, such as information we associate with your Google Account.

Pixel tag

A pixel tag is a type of technology placed on a website or within the body of an email for
the purpose of tracking certain activity, such as views of a website or when an email is
opened. Pixel tags are often used in combination with cookies.

Referrer URL

A Referrer URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is information transmitted to a destination

webpage by a web browser, typically when you click a link to that page. The Referrer URL
contains the URL of the last webpage the browser visited.

Sensitive personal information

This is a particular category of personal information relating to topics such as

confidential medical facts, racial or ethnic origins, political or religious beliefs, or sexuality.
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Server logs

Like most websites, our servers automatically record the page requests made when you
visit our sites. These “server logs” typically include your web request, Internet Protocol
address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request, and one or
more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.

A typical log entry for a search for “cars” looks like this:

123.45.67.89 - 25/Mar/2003 10:15:32 -

http://www.google.com/search?q=cars -
Chrome 112; OS X 10.15.7 -
740674ce2123e969

123.45.67.89 is the Internet Protocol address assigned to the user by the user’s
ISP. Depending on the user’s service, a different address may be assigned to the user
by their service provider each time they connect to the Internet.

25/Mar/2003 10:15:32 is the date and time of the query.

http://www.google.com/search?q=cars is the requested URL, including the

search query.

Chrome 112; OS X 10.15.7 is the browser and operating system being used.

740674ce2123a969 is the unique cookie ID assigned to this particular computer the

first time it visited Google. (Cookies can be deleted by users. If the user has deleted
the cookie from the computer since the last time they’ve visited Google, then it will be
the unique cookie ID assigned to their device the next time they visit Google from
that particular device).

Unique identifiers

A unique identifier is a string of characters that can be used to uniquely identify a

browser, app, or device. Different identifiers vary in how permanent they are, whether they
can be reset by users, and how they can be accessed.

Unique identifiers can be used for various purposes, including security and fraud
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detection, syncing services such as your email inbox, remembering your preferences, and
providing personalized advertising. For example, unique identifiers stored in cookies help
sites display content in your browser in your preferred language. You can configure your
browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Learn more about
how Google uses cookies.

On other platforms besides browsers, unique identifiers are used to recognize a specific
device or app on that device. For example, a unique identifier such as the Advertising ID is
used to provide relevant advertising on Android devices, and can be managed in your
device’s settings. Unique identifiers may also be incorporated into a device by its
manufacturer (sometimes called a universally unique ID or UUID), such as the IMEI-
number of a mobile phone. For example, a device’s unique identifier can be used to
customize our service to your device or analyze device issues related to our services.

Additional Context
Activity on Google Services

If you’re signed in to your Google Account and have Web & App Activity turned on, your
activity data on Google sites, apps, and services may be saved in your account’s Web &
App Activity. Some activity may include information about the general area you were in
when using the Google service. When you search for something using a general area, your
search will use an area of at least 3 sq km, or expand until the area represents the
locations of at least 1,000 people. This helps protect your privacy.

In some cases, areas that you have searched from in the past may be used to estimate a
relevant location for your search. For example, if you search for coffee shops while in
Chelsea, Google might show results for Chelsea in future searches.

You can view and control your Web & App Activity at My Activity.

ads you’ll find most useful

For example, if you watch videos about baking on YouTube, you may see more ads that
relate to baking as you browse the web. We also may use your IP address to determine
your approximate location, so that we can serve you ads for a nearby pizza delivery
service if you search for “pizza.” Learn more about Google ads and why you may see
particular ads.
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advertising and research services on their behalf

For example, merchants may upload data from their loyalty-card programs so that they
can include loyalty information in search or shopping results, or better understand the
performance of their ad campaigns. We only provide aggregated reports to advertisers
that don’t reveal information about individual people.

Android device with Google apps

Android devices with Google apps include devices sold by Google or one of our partners
and include phones, cameras, vehicles, wearables, and televisions. These devices use
Google Play Services and other pre-installed apps that include services like Gmail, Maps,
your phone’s camera and phone dialer, text-to-speech conversion, keyboard input, and
security features. Learn more about Google Play Services.

combine the information we collect

Some examples of how we combine the information we collect include:

When you’re signed in to your Google Account and search on Google, you can see
search results from the public web, along with relevant information from the content
you have in other Google products, like Gmail or Google Calendar. This can include
things like the status of your upcoming flights, restaurant, and hotel reservations, or
your photos. Learn more

If you have communicated with someone via Gmail and want to add them to a
Google Doc or an event in Google Calendar, Google makes it easy to do so by
autocompleting their email address when you start to type in their name. This
feature makes it easier to share things with people you know. Learn more

The Google app can use data that you have stored in other Google products to show
you personalized content, depending on your settings. For example, if you have
searches stored in your Web & App Activity, the Google app can show you news
articles and other information about your interests, like sports scores, based your
activity. Learn more

If you link your Google Account to your Google Home, you can manage your
information and get things done through the Google Assistant. For example, you
can add events to your Google Calendar or get your schedule for the day, ask for SUCCESS!
status updates on your upcoming flight, or send information like driving directions to
your phone. Learn more
customized search results

For example, when you’re signed in to your Google Account and have the Web & App
Activity control enabled, you can get more relevant search results that are based on your
previous searches and activity from other Google services. You can learn more here. You
may also get customized search results even when you’re signed out. If you don’t want
this level of search customization, you can search and browse privately or turn off signed-
out search personalization.

deliver our services

Examples of how we use your information to deliver our services include:

We use the IP address assigned to your device to send you the data you requested,
such as loading a YouTube video

We use unique identifiers stored in cookies on your device to help us authenticate

you as the person who should have access to your Google Account

Photos and videos you upload to Google Photos are used to help you create albums,
collages, and other creations that you can share. Learn more

A flight confirmation email you receive may be used to create a “check-in” button
that appears in your Gmail

When you purchase services or physical goods from us, you may provide us
information like your shipping address or delivery instructions. We use this
information for things like processing, fulfilling, and delivering your order, and to
provide support in connection with the product or service you purchase.

detect abuse

When we detect spam, malware, illegal content (including child sexual abuse and
exploitation material), and other forms of abuse on our systems in violation of our
policies, we may disable your account or take other appropriate action. In certain
circumstances, we may also report the violation to appropriate authorities.
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devices

For example, we can use information from your devices to help you decide which device
you’d like to use to install an app or view a movie you buy from Google Play. We also use
this information to help protect your account.

ensure and improve

For example, we analyze how people interact with advertising to improve the
performance of our ads.

ensure our services are working as intended

For example, we continuously monitor our systems to look for problems. And if we find
something wrong with a specific feature, reviewing activity information collected before
the problem started allows us to fix things more quickly.

Information about things near your device

If you use Google’s Location services on Android, we can improve the performance of
apps that rely on your location, like Google Maps. If you use Google’s Location services,
your device sends information to Google about its location, sensors (like accelerometer),
and nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi access points (like MAC address and signal strength). All
these things help to determine your location. You can use your device settings to enable
Google Location services. Learn more

legal process, or enforceable governmental request

Like other technology and communications companies, Google regularly receives

requests from governments and courts around the world to disclose user data. Respect
for the privacy and security of data you store with Google underpins our approach to
complying with these legal requests. Our legal team reviews each and every request,
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regardless of type, and we frequently push back when a request appears to be overly
broad or doesn’t follow the correct process. Learn more in our Transparency Report.
make improvements

For example, we use cookies to analyze how people interact with our services. And that
analysis can help us build better products. For example, it may help us discover that it’s
taking people too long to complete a certain task or that they have trouble finishing steps
at all. We can then redesign that feature and improve the product for everyone.

may link information

Google Analytics relies on first-party cookies, which means the cookies are set by the
Google Analytics customer. Using our systems, data generated through Google Analytics
can be linked by the Google Analytics customer and by Google to third-party cookies that
are related to visits to other websites. For example, an advertiser may want to use its
Google Analytics data to create more relevant ads, or to further analyze its traffic. Learn
more

our users

For example, to prevent abuse and increase transparency and accountability over our
online content moderation practices, Google shares data about requests for removal of
content from our services with Lumen, which collects and analyzes these requests to
facilitate research to help Internet users understand their rights. Learn more.

partner with Google

There are over 2 million non-Google websites and apps that partner with Google to show
ads. Learn more

payment information

For example, if you add a credit card or other payment method to your Google Account,
you can use it to buy things across our services, like apps in the Play Store. We may also
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ask for other information, like a business tax ID, to help process your payment. In some
cases, we may also need to verify your identity and may ask you for information to do
this.
We may also use payment information to verify that you meet age requirements, if, for
example, you enter an incorrect birthday indicating you’re not old enough to have a
Google Account. Learn more

personalized ads

You may also see personalized ads based on information from the advertiser. If you
shopped on an advertiser's website, for example, they can use that visit information to
show you ads. Learn more

phone number

If you add your phone number to your account, it can be used for different purposes
across Google services, depending on your settings. For example, your phone number can
be used to help you access your account if you forget your password, help people find
and connect with you, and make the ads you see more relevant to you. Learn more

Places you label like home and work

You might choose to save places to your Google Account that are important to you, such
as your home or your work. If you set your home or work addresses, they can be used to
help you do things more easily, such as getting directions or finding results closer to your
home or work, and for more useful ads.

You can edit or delete your home or work addresses anytime in your Google Account.

protect against abuse

For example, information about security threats can help us notify you if we think your
account has been compromised (at which point we can help you take steps to protect
your account).

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publicly accessible sources
For example, we may collect information that’s publicly available online or from other
public sources to help train Google’s AI models and build products and features like
Google Translate, Gemini Apps, and Cloud AI capabilities. Or, if your business’s
information appears on a website, we may index and display it on Google services.

rely on cookies to function properly

For example, we use a cookie called ‘lbcs’ that makes it possible for you to open many
Google Docs in one browser. Blocking this cookie would prevent Google Docs from
working as expected. Learn more

safety and reliability

Some examples of how we use your information to help keep our services safe and
reliable include:

Collecting and analyzing IP addresses and cookie data to protect against

automated abuse. This abuse takes many forms, such as sending spam to Gmail
users, stealing money from advertisers by fraudulently clicking on ads, or censoring
content by launching a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

The “last account activity” feature in Gmail can help you find out if and when
someone accessed your email without your knowledge. This feature shows you
information about recent activity in Gmail, such as the IP addresses that accessed
your mail, the associated location, and the date and time of access. Learn more

sensitive categories

When showing you personalized ads, we use topics that we think might be of interest to
you based on your activity. For example, you may see ads for things like "Cooking and
Recipes" or "Air Travel.” We don’t use topics or show personalized ads based on sensitive
categories like race, religion, sexual orientation, or health. And we require the same from
advertisers that use our services.

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Sensor data from your device
Your device may have sensors that can be used to better understand your location and
movement. For example, an accelerometer can be used to determine your speed and a
gyroscope to figure out your direction of travel. Learn more about how we use location
information.

servers around the world

For example, we operate data centers located around the world to help keep our products
continuously available for users.

services to make and receive calls or send and receive messages

Examples of these services include:

Google Voice, for making and receiving calls, sending text messages, and managing
voicemail

Google Meet, for making and receiving video calls

Gmail, for sending and receiving emails

Google Chat, for sending and receiving messages

Google Duo, for making and receiving video calls and sending and receiving
messages

Google Fi, for a phone plan

show trends

When lots of people start searching for something, it can provide useful information
about particular trends at that time. Google Trends samples Google web searches to
estimate the popularity of searches over a certain period of time and shares those results
publicly in aggregated terms. Learn more

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specific Google services

For example, you can delete your blog from Blogger or a Google Site you own from Google
Sites. You can also delete reviews you’ve left on apps, games, and other content in the
Play Store.

specific partners

For example, we allow YouTube creators and advertisers to work with measurement
companies to learn about the audience of their YouTube videos or ads, using cookies or
similar technologies. Another example is merchants on our shopping pages, who use
cookies to understand how many different people see their product listings. Learn more
about these partners and how they use your information.

synced with your Google Account

Your Chrome browsing history is only saved to your account if you’ve enabled Chrome
synchronization with your Google Account. Learn more

the people who matter most to you online

For example, when you type an address in the To, Cc, or Bcc field of an email you're
composing, Gmail will suggest addresses based on the people you contact most
frequently.

the public

For example, we process information about requests to remove content from our services
under Google's content removal policies or applicable law to assess the request, and to
ensure transparency, improve accountability and prevent abuse and fraud in these
practices.

third parties
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For example, we process your information to report use statistics to rights holders about
how their content was used in our services. We may also process your information if
people search for your name and we display search results for sites containing publicly
available information about you.

Views and interactions with content and ads

For example, we collect information about views and interactions with ads so we can
provide aggregated reports to advertisers, like telling them whether we served their ad on
a page and whether the ad was likely seen by a viewer. We may also measure other
interactions, such as how you move your mouse over an ad or if you interact with the
page on which the ad appears.

Voice and audio information

For example, you can choose whether you want Google to save an audio recording to
your Google Account when you interact with Google Search, Assistant, and Maps. When
your device detects an audio activation command, like “Hey Google,” Google records your
voice and audio plus a few seconds before the activation. Learn more

your activity on other sites and apps

This activity might come from your use of Google services, like from syncing your account
with Chrome or your visits to sites and apps that partner with Google. Many websites and
apps partner with Google to improve their content and services. For example, a website
might use our advertising services (like AdSense) or analytics tools (like Google Analytics),
or it might embed other content (such as videos from YouTube). These services may
share information about your activity with Google and, depending on your account
settings and the products in use (for instance, when a partner uses Google Analytics in
conjunction with our advertising services), this data may be associated with your
personal information.

Learn more about how Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps.

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